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Oakbrook Center
Oakbrook Center is a shopping center located near Interstate 88 and Route 83 in Oak Brook, Illinois. It was originally opened in 1962. It is the second largest shopping center in the Chicago metropolitan area by gross leasable area, only surpassed by Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, Illinois. Oakbrook Center is an upper class, high end retail shopping mega center comprised of over 2 million square feet of clothing and accessory choices as well as many eateries. It ranges from one floor to four floors depending on where people are. Current anchor stores include Macy's (formerly Marshall Field's), Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Barnes & Noble and The Container Store. Some restaurants include Maggiano's Little Italy, Wildfire Restaurant, The Clubhouse Restaurant, Red Robin, Cheesecake Factory and California Pizza Kitchen. Oakbrook Center is, according to its website, the largest open-air mall in the entire country; and, at over 2 million square feet of leasable space, it’s a believable claim. It was, also according to the website, voted as the number one shopping destination in all of Illinois. This claim is a bit more dubious, as it’s also been reported that Woodfield Mall is the Number 2 tourist destination in all of Illinois behind Navy Pier. Throughout the Late 90s and into the 2000s, Oakbrook Center continued it rapacious upscaling, solidifying its position into the destination mall it is today. Today, Oakbrook Center is – together with Woodfield Mall in the northwest suburbs and Michigan Avenue downtown – part of a trifecta of uber-regional shopping destinations serving the Chicagoland area. The upscale stores featured at the mall are a collection slightly beneath the boutique-style, exorbitant stores at malls such as South Coast Plaza in Orange County, California and the traditional mix of mall stores found at other larger malls like Woodfield and the Mall of America. This mix of stores, combined with the mall’s sheer size and location – smack dab in the middle of the Chicagoland metropolitan area and at the crux of I-88, I-294, and I-290 -offers shoppers from the entire area and beyond easy access to the mall. History 1960s and opening In 1960, construction began on Oakbrook Center (originally to be named Oakbrook Center, but the name was changed when a town near the mall took that name). The 25 million dollar facility was built on a 160 acre parcel, located 16.3 miles west of The Loop, in suburban Oak Brook. Open-air in format, the complex was designed by Richard Marsh Bennett, of the Loebl, Schlossman & Bennett firm. Buildings were configured with Ground (or "Mall") Levels and basements. Oakbrook Center opened in 1962 with 37 stores, and 3 anchors, Sears and Marshall Field's, as well as a Jewel Food Store. Speaking at the inauguration were Illinois Senators Everett P. Dirksen and Paul Douglas The fully-leased shopping center housed fifty-six stores and services. These fifty-six stores included Walgreens, Stuarts Ready-To-Wear For Ladies, Maurice L. Rothschild, Fabric Mart, an S.S. Kresge 5 & 10, and 3-level (66,000 square foot) Bonwit Teller. In its original incarnation, Oakbrook Center encompassed 1,300,000 leasable square feet, making it the second-largest shopping center in the United States (New Jersey's Garden State Plaza being the largest). The first motion picture venue at the mall, the Balaban & Klatz Oakbrook Theatre, opened December 25, 1964. This freestanding venue was twinned in 1983 and reconfigured as a tri-plex in 1984. Within a decade after opening, though, Oakbrook Center began its transformation into an upscale destination-mall for the entire Chicagoland area. This all occurred in spite of competition 2 miles down the street in the form of an enclosed mall, Yorktown Center, which opened with 100 stores and three anchors in 1968. However, unlike some instances of outdoor malls faced with enclosed mall competition throughout the past, Yorktown’s influence and competition did not cause Oakbrook to enclose, as it did for River Oaks Mall in southeast-suburban Calumet City, which enclosed in 1994 after decades as an outdoor mall. 1970s ]] In 1972, McDonald's Plaza, a 349,000-square-foot office building was built east of the Oakbrook Center mall, to Hines, a Houston-based developer with a major presence in the Chicago area, confirmed a spokeswoman for Jones Lang LaSalle, which is selling the property for McDonald's. A three-story Lord & Taylor opened on February 20, 1973 on the south side. Also, 2 other locations opened at Woodfield Mall and Hawthorn Mall. 1980s ]] A larger expansion got underway in 1980. The southeast corner of the mall was expanded with a two-level twenty tenant store block and three anchor department stores, I. Magnin, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Neiman Marcus joined the center in a 1982 expansion that doubled the physical size of the center with a new southeast court. In 1987, a four-screen movie theater (which closed in 2001 and then reopened in 2018) was added near Saks Fifth Avenue. Also, another 2-level store block and a parking garage were completed. These were adjacent to a new Southeast Wing. 1990s ]] A subsequent expansion of Oakbrook Center was announced in July 1989. This was to include a 2-level (248,000 square foot) Northeast Wing, 3-level (220,000 square foot) Nordstrom and three parking garages. A full enclosure of mall courts and concourses was considered but not carried out. In 1991, a new two-story, open-air addition opened northeast of Sears. Built on top of a parking garage, it added 210,000 ft² of mall retail and a 3-level 220,000 ft² Nordstrom, which opened on April 5, 1991, becoming the first Chicagoland Nordstrom. Maggiano's Little Italy opened that same year, becoming the first location. In other areas of the mall, anchor alterations were underway. Bonwit Teller closed their location in 1990, while I. Magnin was shuttered in January 1991, with its former site subdivided in 1994 for specialty stores, including Eddie Bauer and Tiffany & Company. Corner Bakery Cafe opened to customers on December 3, 1992. On November 24, 1997, The Clubhouse Restaurant opened to the public. The 20,000-square-foot space included a main dining room, a casual cafe, a cigar room and, of course, an extensive retail environment. In 1998, Urban Outfitters and Wildfire Restaurant opened. 2000s Saks Fifth Avenue closed their store in 2002 and sold the store to Federated Department Stores, which used the site to open a 90,000 sq.ft., three story Bloomingdale's Home store on September 12, 2003. Cheesecake Factory opened in August 2004, replacing the 5-7 Cinemas which closed in 2003. Marshall Field's adopted the Macy's name on September 8, 2006 with Macy's buying the parent company. On November 12, 2008, Barnes & Noble opened near The Clubhouse Restaurant. A year later, in 2009, American Apparel (which closed in 2017) opened. 2010s ]] In 2010, Gibson's Bar And Steakhouse opened to the public across the street from the Mall by McDonald's (now closed). XXI Forever opened in the mall in April of that same year. Pandora opened its doors a year later in 2011. General Growth Properties acquired a half-interest and management of the mall in 2004, when it acquired The Rouse Company (which had itself acquired its stake the mall in 2002). It is currently co-owned by Brookfield Properties Retail Group and CalPERS. Pinstripes opened as a stand-alone location in the mall parking lot in 2012. In November 2013, Perry’s Steakhouse opened in the former basement level of Neiman Marcus. On January 4, 2012, Bloomingdale's announced that it would close its Oakbrook Home store by March of the year. Two years later in 2014, that building was split and fully leased out to six smaller tenants: The Container Store on the first level; Lululemon Athletica, Tommy Bahama, Hugo Boss, and Aritzia on the second level; and the first Pirch store outside of California on the third level. Pirch announced in 2017 that its store at the mall will close on September 30 as it falls back to its original California roots. Dave and Buster's will move into that location in the near future. The next 2 years were spent remodeling common areas, downsizing stores and finding new tenants for empty spaces. A two-phase court and concourse redesign added new landscaping, outdoor seating, fountains, entertainment venues and Fire Totems (to provide heat for wintertime shoppers). The court fronting on Crate & Barrel became a Village Green, whose centerpiece was a year-round Vortex Fountain. An Amenities Pavilion was installed near Sears. In August 2014, Le Méridien opened a 172 guestroom hotel, which is their first in the state of Illinois. The northeast store block was reconfigured between 2015 and 2016. Four Level 2 store spaces were gutted and rebuilt as The District At Oakbrook Center, a 9-bay food court. Motion pictures also returned to the mall, following a 13-year hiatus. The AMC Theatres'' 12'' showed its first features on October 13, 2016. It was a part of a new wing that included some stores and restaurants. The new wing is near remodeled section of the Nordstrom wing. On June 20, 2017, Sears announced that its Oakbrook Center store would be closing temporarily in September 2017. It reopened on October 5, 2018 using only the first level of the building, while the leftover space will be occupied by KidZania on the second and third levels by 2019. The remaining space on the second floor is occupied by Ballard Designs and L.L. Bean, the latter of which opened on November 9, 2018 and the former of which opened during fall 2018. Additionally, the Sears Auto Center at Oakbrook Center closed permanently in March 2018. The land that the center sat on will be occupied by Life Time Fitness that will open sometime in 2020. However, on April 22, 2019, only 7 months after reopening, it was announced that Sears would be closing permanently on April 28, 2019. On February 26, 2018, it was announced that Lord & Taylor would be closing permanently in January 2019, after 46 years of operation. In Late November 2018, Shake Shack opened for the first time. Meanwhile, Brookfield Property Partners, based in Hamilton, Bermuda, had acquired a share of General Growth Properties in 2016. In August 2018, Brookfield established 100 percent ownership of the corporation. Hence, Oakbrook Center became part of the Brookfield retail center portfolio. Current Anchors * Macy's (opened 1962 as Marshall Field's) * Neiman Marcus (opened 1982) * Nordstrom (opened April 5, 1991) * Barnes & Noble (opened November 12, 2008) * The Container Store (opened 2014) * AMC Theatres (opened October 13, 2016) Former Anchors * Lord & Taylor (opened 1973, closed January 2019) * Saks Fifth Avenue (opened 1982, closed 2002) * Bloomingdale's Home Store (opened September 12, 2003, closed March 2012) * Sears (opened 1962 as 3-story store, downsized in 2018, closed April 28, 2019) * Marshall Field's (opened 1962, converted into Macy's in 2006) Restaurants * Maggiano's Little Italy (opened 1991) * Wildfire Restaurant (opened 1998) * The Clubhouse Restaurant (opened November 24, 1997) * Red Robin * Cheesecake Factory (opened August 2004) * California Pizza Kitchen Bus routes Pace * 301 Roosevelt Road * 322 Cermak Road/22nd Street * 332 River Road/York Road * 877 Harvey/Downers Grove Limited See also * The Shops at Oak Brook Place * Oakbrook Promenade Gallery Videos File:MALL Oakbrook Center. Oak Brook IL|Mall Tour File:Sears. Oak Brook IL|New Sears Tour File:2010 Video ORIGINAL Otis Hydraulic Elevator @ Neiman Marcus OakBrook Center|The Old Neiman Marcus Elevator File:ThyssenKrupp Hydraulic Elevator @ the former Bloomingdale's Home & Furniture OakBrook Center Mall|The Bloomingdale's Home Elevator Photos Directory.jpg|Directory Gap.jpg|Gap Pinstripes.jpg|Pinstripes External Links * Oakbrook Center's Official Website * Oakbrook Center on USA Store Fanon Wiki Category:Malls in Illinois Category:Malls in the United States Category:Shopping Malls Category:Brookfield Properties Retail Group Malls Category:Largest Malls in the United States Category:Outdoor Malls Category:Malls that opened in 1962 Category:Multi-Level Malls Category:Shopping Centers Category:Plazas in the USA Category:Plazas Category:Nordstrom-anchored Malls Category:Neiman Marcus-anchored Malls Category:Potbelly Locations Category:Macy's-anchored Malls Category:Former Sears-anchored Malls Category:Former Lord & Taylor-anchored Malls Category:Former Marshall Field's-anchored Malls Category:Barnes & Noble-anchored Malls Category:The Container Store-anchored Properties Category:Forever 21 Locations Category:H&M Locations Category:Crate & Barrel-anchored Properties Category:AMC-anchored Malls Category:Former Saks Fifth Avenue-anchored Malls Category:Former Bloomingdale's-anchored Malls